The Metamorphosis Odyssey: Book Two -- "The Price"
Originally published as a stand alone graphic novel (October 1981)*

(*Note: While comic books and comic magazines often featured cover dates months ahead of actual time, this practice is not the same for published books. Thus the indica for this graphic novel provides the publication date of "October 1981," even while the final chapter of the previous storyline concluded in the "December 1981" issue of Epic Illustrated)



grade: A


While this story begins as a totally different animal than the Metamorphosis Odyssey, starring a tax auditor on a theocratic world of religious sorcerers participating in a larger galactic battle between their "Instrumentality" and another galactic empire known as "The Monarchy," the story quickly transitions into that of Syzygy Darklock, a bishop sorcerer who closely resembles Doctor Strange in appearance and Aknaton/Vanth in terms of destiny. He's ultimately forced to make a massive ethical sacrifice in order to save the galaxy, and this comes after peering into the future and glimpsing his own destiny, much as Aknaton did. Heck, he's even led to all this by a master manipulator who reveals his final plan with the full knowledge that Syzygy will thus destroy him in a moment of rage, nearly exactly as Vanth did to Aknaton.

The differences, though, are two fold. For one, Starlin gives a lot more attention to characterization this time. Perhaps it's the format that has allowed him to spend more time on this. Syzygy and his lover are both relatively well developed, and while we learn considerably less about Taurus Killgaren, he comes off as incredibly intriguing (and why is he dressed like Vanth anyway? Does that ever get explained??).

For another, the art in this volume is far less ambitious. It's solid throughout, but the panel arrangements are smaller and the art tends to favor talking heads and less striking action. Additionally, there is no color this time around. Is this because of the publisher? And why was this story published through Eclipse anyway? The first and third volumes were published by Marvel and its subsidiary publication, Epic.

One other point that seems important to revisit is Starlin's layout of the multiple dimensions of reality. When he described it all at the conclusion of the Metamorphosis Odyssey, I never expected that he'd revisit it so explicitly here, but it appears to be an important foundation for the universe he is building, so I'll be including it in the "Important Details" section.

Finally, the major religious questions about "God" that Starlin gave such central attention to in the Metamorphosis Odyssey seem incidentally and anti-climactically solved in this storyline: The Gods are just super powerful beings chilling out on Levels 13 and 14. What a letdown.

All in all a very effective story, but it certainly deviates from The Metamorphosis Odyssey in several key ways -- some for better, some for worse.


Important Details:

- First appearance and origin of Syzygy the Dark (formerly Syzygy Darklock)

- First mentions of The Instrumentality and The Monarchy, as well as the history of their 200 year war (still ongoing)

- First appearance of Lord Papel, temporal head of The Instrumentality, as well as Cardinal Spydar.

- Syzygy becomes Vanth's mentor.

- First mention (in the comics) of Vanth now being called Dreadstar.

- Syzygy is destined to be destroyed by a "God"

- Interesting that Killgaren was unsure whether it was Syzygy or his brother destined to play the great role in bringing about a better future. Will this be revisited? Will it cause Syzygy to doubt himself? Or did his glimpsing the future already remove the potential for such doubt?

- First appearance of the Light Cutter II, a ship that Syzygy presumably acquires for Vanth ahead of meeting him.

- The fifteen levels of reality (as articulated both in Metamorphosis Odyssey, Chapter XIII and in this volume):

Level 1: Existence as we know it.

Level 2: atomic, electrical, magnetic, photon, and other forces that we are able to tap

Levels 3-9: Mystical planes. Wizards, priests, and other "first levelers" can make use of the forces existing here.

Level 8: Apparently, demons reside here as well as on Level 10 (and possibly Level 9 too?), as Slytis (from The Price) is from Level 8, and he was more powerful than Bialgesuard. Starlin told us that demons resided on Level 10 in Chapter XIII of The Metamorphosis Odyssey.

Levels 10-12: Demons, spirits, elementals, angels, and dread veil sorcerers. Few first-levelers ever get to this level.

Level 10: Contains a reality known as "Nirvana's Gate," only accessible to gods and demons. It contains the Eye of the Gods, an entrance to the 11th level. Bialgesuard takes Syzygy to this level in The Price.

Level 11: A level of pure reserve energy stored by "The Gods." This energy has been poisoned so that it is lethal to demons, but Syzygy, with Bialgesuard's help, is able to tap this power in The Price.

Levels 13 and 14: "Provinces of The Gods"

Level 15: "sole domain of a being of omnipotent force and many names. His plane of power is without end. His is the reality of the infinite." This is the level the Infinity Horn tapped in order to destroy the Milky Way.


Minor Details:

- Why would Syzygy's brother not believe in spirits and demons when he knows his brother deals with them in his line of work?

- I love the occasional appearance of non-human looking characters in background shots (and who knows if Lord Papel is from one of these races or has just been transformed by his cosmic experiences, much as Syzygy ultimately is). One background character on page 2 looks Orsirian, which can't be possible. Perhaps a close cousin of that race?

- Page 12: how are those visuals NOT lifted directly from Doctor Strange??? Still, the idea of making a major religion out of such occultism is an intriguing premise. What if such power only came as a result of participating in a large bureaucracy?

- I find it interesting that Sister Marian is depicted as somewhat homely and overweight. An interesting and unconventional choice for a love interest.

- I LOVE how Starlin draws Taurus Killgaren. At first, he could be confused for Vanth with his attire, but soon there's no question that he's a different and, somehow, more sympathetic looking character on his own self-inflicted deathbed.

- Why is Aknaton in Syzygy's glimpse of the future (or is that another Orsirinian?)

- There are several odd leaps in time in this story, perhaps due to space constraints.


plot synopsis in one sentence:

Syzygy Darklock is a bishop for The Instrumentality, a galactic theocratic empire governed by religious sorcerers, he takes a sabbatical from service to solve the mysterious supernatural murder of his brother, the head of The Instrumentality (Lord Papel) allows him to go, hoping he will be killed since he is a potential rival to the head of the government down the road, Szygy contacts the demon who slew his brother and finds that the demon is willing to help him obtain the power necessary to kill his master (Taurus Killgaren) because he mistreated the demon, Syzygy gains the power and is horribly disfigured by it, confronts Killgaren, learns Killgaren set all of this in motion so that Syzygy would be powerful enough to take the next step towards attaining enough power to help bring a better future into being, he glimpses the future and the fact that he will need to mentor Vanth Dreadstar, he learns that he must sacrifice the love of his life (Sister Marian) in order to attain this power, he kills Killgaren in rage (as Killgaren had planned), sacrifices Sister Marian, gets the needed power, meets Vanth, and prays that he will meet Sister Marian in heaven eventually and that she will forgive him.

"Dreadstar"
originally published in: Epic Illustrated #15 (December 1982)



grade: B+

It's wonderful to see this series in all its visual glory one last time before it's relegated to the clumsy reproduction quality and lazy inking of the ongoing series that follows. Still, this is an awkward installment, clearly designed more as an advertisement for the ongoing than a worthwhile installment in the series on its own merits. The excessive recaps of everything that has thus far transpired, along with the spacing out throughout this issue of Epic Illustrated so that the cursory browser couldn't possibly avoid it, and the fact that nothing of any true importance occurs within the story all suggest as much.

Still, there's a dramatic purpose for this story -- a clear turning point from the tone of the Metamorphosis Odyssey and its sequels towards something different. Whereas the previous stories were impressive in their ability to languish in philosophical depression, touting the hopelessness and cruelty of the universe, this story offers us hope for the first time. There's the random survival of Oedi from Caldor (it was previously suggested in the Marvel Graphic Novel that Vanth had been the only survivor of Caldor), providing Vanth with a friend as well as a reminder of the past he loved and once felt he'd completely lost, there's the addition of a new (as of yet unnamed) compatriot that reminds him of Delilah, his lost love, as well, and he, Oedi and Syzygy are presented like a close knit family as they work together in this issue, all minimizing the sense of total loss Vanth was feeling in the previous story.

Finally, there's the whole issue of Vanth attempting to rescue the unnamed female from being crushed under 15 tons of rock. It should be impossible, and she should still be hopelessly crushed even if he manages to get her out. We watch him struggle, fight his own inner demons for strength, gain confidence that he can do it, and yet I fully expected the reveal on the next page to be that the entire gesture had been futile. That would have been consistent with the tone and theme of the previous stories. But no. Vanth is finally in control of his own destiny, finally able to be his own hero in the way that he wants to, and so he succeeds, and the female is even able to walk of her own volition. The impossible is now possible. Starlin is preparing us for a brighter, more optimistic ongoing series. I'm not convinced I'm ready for the shift, but it's an interesting move.

Of course, in addition to the change in focus, there is a subtle and yet massive revision made to the entire backstory of the series in the flashbacks Vanth offers. As he says:

"I joined forces with [Aknaton], and Earthling named Juliet, the towering Za, and the woodland spirit, Whis'par, to battle the Zygothean conquerors. But the Zygs turned out to be more than we could handle. We just couldn't stop them. So Aknaton turned to the Infinity Horn, his doomsday weapon. We figured everyone would feel as he did. Better dead than living under the tyrannical heel of the Zygoteans."

So now they were freedom fighters, actively trying other solutions to stop the Zygoteans before turning to the Infinity Horn as a last resort. Quite a change. I wonder if Starlin is attempting to retroactively make the entire series less dark and a tad more kid friendly. Still, this steals a lot of "umph" from the daring and philosophical brilliance of the original series.

Another revision (though less significant): The plan we saw Dreadstar and Syzygy beginning to put into action at the end of the Marvel Graphic Novel has already been abandoned. Too bad. I found government engineering from within and under the radar to be a very intriguing premise. Instead, we're looking at more space-faring and inter-stellar combat. In every way, the new direction for the series charted in this issue feels safer, more crowd pleasing, and potentially more vapid as well. Was it Starlin's idea to make the change, or did Goodwin and the like ask him to adjust course for the sake of creating a more crowd pleasing flagship for their new line of comic books?

By the way, this also calls to mind the important detail explained at the beginning of this issue -- Dreadstar was originally intended to be an ongoing lead feature for Bizarre Adventures and was only changed at the last minute when Marvel made the decision to pilot a line of Epic comic books. Too bad. A Bizarre Adventures lead feature could have maintained the quality level required to properly showcase Starlin's art, and perhaps he could have kept the darker tone there as well.


Important Details:

- Oedi has survived the attack on Caldor and joined with Vanth and Syzygy, though none of this is ever shown/explained. He's just there now.

- Syzygy has taught Vanth, "the secret fighting skills of the warrior priests of Sol," "the hidden workings of both the Monarchy and Instrumentality," "how to hype up a photron drive so that I could out-race any government pursuit ship," and "He even taught what little magic I could handle. Unfortunately, I just don't have the right vibratory patterns to be a good sorcerer"

- As a result of the Instrumentality developing devastating new weapons to break the stalemate Vanth had created for both empires, Vanth decides to abandon his original plan to work from within The Monarchy, instead deciding to take the battle to the Instrumentality and executing a mysterious "Plan M" that he had devised with Syzygy and which even Oedi is not party to.


Minor Details:

- The only aspect of the previous stories Vanth doesn't recount is the content of "The Price." I assume this is because, as well as Vanth knows Syzygy by this point, he still doesn't know his origin.

- I pointed out in the previous review that there are uncanny visual similarities between this work and Masters of the Universe (which was just coming into prominence in 1982). Just LOOK at Syzygy this time. He's a dead wringer for Skeletor when he wears his hood. Again, who is stealing from who on this one?



- "Oedi." I wonder -- is this cat-man somehow a nod to "Odie," the dog from Garfield, an enormously popular cat comic strip on the rise in 1982?

Really, it's just starting to feel like Starlin makes a regular habit of borrowing from the zeitgeist of the moment. Vanth's original characterization in 1981 felt very similar to Wolverine's, by 1982 his healing factor is identical to Wolverine's, he lifts his sword like He-Man in 1982, his partner is a dead wringer for Skeletor in 1982, and just maybe he even stole Oedi's name from Garfield and named the idealic planet "Caldor" after the ubiquitous box store chain. I have to believe that at least some of this was intentional, and possibly done with humorous intention(?).


Plot synopsis in one sentence:

Vanth and Oedi are attempting to steal a cargo freighter from an Instrumentality mining facility while posed as workers there, Vanth spots a woman who resembles his deceased lover, she ends up pinned down under a 15 ton boulder, Vanth flashes back to everything that we already know about him, he makes the boulder a symbol for all his internal conflicts and manages to lift it, freeing the girl, so he and Oedi flee with the stolen ship in order to begin executing Plan M, and it's implied that the woman Vanth rescued has stowed away onboard.

Totally understand shaxper as Starlin has a way of getting into your brain and messing with it. It is what he has pretty much based all of his stuff on. Warping our thoughts and attitudes creatively to thinking outside of the box (or cosmic cube) and not being mindless sheep...

I haven't read the ongoing, but my reservation for doing so comes from the Dreadstar tryout, which just seemed so totally thematically different from what had come before. Too happy as the follow-up to a series that was about cosmic suicide from the very first panel.

I wonder if the people who love the Dreadstar ongoing found that series first, and only discovered The Metamorphosis Odyssey in hindsight. Because it's hard to imagine starting with the MO and then moving on to Dreadstar.

I think being on the spinner racks forced Starlin to write to an all-ages audience, too.

Was it originally being considered for spinner racks? There's just such a clear shift to a more upbeat, all-ages tone that seems apropos of nothing that occurs in the work itself.

Jim Shooter...My editorial hero 50% of the time; the world's greatest villain the rest.